Primary Location
Phoenix Personal Injury Lawyers
2700 N Central Ave Suite 320, Phoenix, AZ 85004, United States
Phone: (602) 905-7766
Call us at (855) 855-8910
Call us at (855) 855-8910
In Phoenix, preventable birth injuries wreck families during what should be the safest moment in a hospital. A doctor misreads a fetal monitor. A nurse doesn't flag distress. A C-section comes twenty minutes too late. And a child pays for it. Our birth injury lawyers at The Simon Law Group fight for Phoenix families when medical mistakes during labor and delivery cause lasting harm. Call (602) 905-7766 for a free case review. You pay nothing unless we win.
Not all birth injuries look the same. Some heal in a matter of weeks. Others change a child's life permanently. Here's what we see come through our door most often.
This one keeps us up at night. A baby's brain loses oxygen during delivery, and the result is cerebral palsy. Movement, muscle tone, coordination, all affected. The CDC [1] calls it the most common motor disability in childhood. And too many of those cases start with a delivery room mistake that someone should have caught.
Picture this: the baby's shoulder gets stuck behind the mother's pelvic bone during delivery. That's shoulder dystocia. If the doctor yanks too hard or twists at the wrong angle, the nerves in the baby's shoulder stretch or tear. Sometimes permanently.
Fancy medical term for brain damage from oxygen loss. The umbilical cord gets pinched. The placenta detaches too soon. Or the team just doesn't move fast enough when the baby shows distress. We've seen outcomes range from mild learning issues to kids who need round-the-clock care.
Broken collarbones and skull fractures during delivery. Usually from forceps or vacuum extractors used with too much force. Most fractures heal fine, but here's the thing, they shouldn't be happening in the first place if the delivery is handled right.
Forceps clamped too tight against a newborn's face. You see drooping on one side, or the baby can't close one eye. Some of these resolve over time. Some don't.
Brain damage from jaundice that nobody treated. Jaundice shows up in tons of newborns and it's one of the easiest things to manage. Check the bilirubin levels, put the baby under the lights. When a hospital skips that basic step, a completely treatable condition turns into permanent brain damage.
Every parent with a birth injury case asks the same thing: what happened in that room? Here's what actually goes wrong behind most of these claims.
Fetal heart rate strips are right there on the screen. Decelerations, flat patterns, late decels, these are red flags any trained nurse should catch. When the strip shows trouble and nobody acts on it? That's where the damage starts.
Or didn't come at all. Labor stalls. The baby's heart rate tanks. The situation clearly calls for surgical delivery. But the OB waits. Maybe the OR isn't prepped. Maybe they think it'll resolve. Twenty minutes later, the baby has brain damage that a timely C-section would have prevented.
Both tools serve a purpose when used correctly. But slap a vacuum on a baby's head at the wrong angle, or crank forceps with too much force, and you're looking at skull fractures, brain bleeds, and nerve injuries.
The baby's shoulder is stuck. There are textbook maneuvers for this, McRoberts, suprapubic pressure, rotating the baby. Pulling on the baby's head is absolutely not one of them. But panicked providers do it anyway, and the result is torn nerves in the baby's arm and shoulder.
Pitocin ramps up contractions. Crank it too high and you get hyperstimulation, contractions stacking on top of each other so fast the baby never recovers between them. Oxygen plummets. Brain cells die.
Group B strep. Chorioamnionitis. Both are screenable, both are treatable. When doctors miss them, the infection passes to the baby during delivery. Then you're dealing with neonatal sepsis or meningitis.
If your baby got placed on a cooling blanket after birth, that's therapeutic hypothermia. Hospitals use it to slow brain damage after a hypoxic event. Good thing they're treating it. But it also means somebody in that delivery room knew oxygen deprivation happened. That fact matters for your case.
In the most severe cases, a delivery room error that the care team failed to prevent may rise to the level of wrongful death medical malpractice, giving the family the right to pursue a separate wrongful death claim.
Labor and delivery involves a whole team. When something goes wrong, it's rarely just one person's fault. Here's how liability actually breaks down.
They run the show during delivery. Failed to read the monitor? Waited too long on the C-section call? Used instruments when they shouldn't have? That's on them. The legal question is whether a competent OB in the same specialty would have done it differently.
Two angles here. Under Arizona's vicarious liability rules, the hospital answers for its employees' mistakes. That nurse who missed the distress pattern on the strip? The hospital owns that error. But hospitals also catch direct claims: not enough staff on the L&D floor, broken equipment, ignored safety checklists.
The bedside nurse is usually the first set of eyes on fetal monitoring. If she sees trouble and doesn't page the doctor, or the message gets lost during a shift change, that's a failure to communicate that feeds directly into the injury.
Epidural complications affect both mom and baby. A botched epidural or medication dosing error that contributes to the birth injury brings that provider into the case.
Once the baby is out, care transfers to these folks. Missed a complication? Delayed cooling therapy? Didn't catch warning signs in the first hours? They share liability for whatever harm resulted.
Bottom line: we trace every error back to the people responsible. Not just the doctor who delivered the baby. Everyone in that chain.
Something feels off. Maybe the doctors are avoiding eye contact. Maybe your baby isn't hitting milestones. Whatever tipped you off, here's what we tell families to do right away.
Take your child to a specialist outside the delivery hospital. A pediatric neurologist or developmental specialist in Phoenix who has zero connection to the team that may have caused the problem. You need an honest assessment, not a cover-your-colleague opinion.
Arizona law gives you the right to your complete medical files. Maternal charts, neonatal records, fetal monitoring strips, nursing notes, medication administration logs. Submit written requests to every provider who touched your care. Make copies of everything before you hand anything over.
Your child's symptoms. Every doctor visit. What the delivery team told you and when they said it. Developmental milestones your child is missing. Dates, names, details. This timeline becomes your evidence.
If someone from hospital administration calls wanting a statement or asking you to sign paperwork, stop right there. Don't sign. Don't record a statement. Anything you say or sign gets weaponized against you in a future claim.
Arizona gives parents two years to file. But here's the part most people miss: claims made on behalf of a minor child may carry extended deadlines under Arizona's tolling rules. Don't try to figure out which deadline applies to you. Call our Phoenix office at (602) 905-7766 and we'll sort it out.
These cases are hard to win. Let's be honest about that upfront. Arizona law sets a high bar, and you need serious evidence before your case even gets filed.
Duty, meaning a doctor-patient relationship existed. Breach, meaning the provider's actions fell short of what a competent specialist would have done. Causation, meaning that specific failure caused your child's injury, not just a bad outcome in general. And damages, meaning your child suffered real, measurable harm. Drop any one of those four and the whole case falls apart.
In most birth injury cases, those strips are exhibit A. They show the baby's heart rate second by second throughout labor. Our experts review them to pinpoint exactly when distress appeared, what the team should have done, and the moment they dropped the ball.
You need an affidavit of merit. Arizona law (A.R.S. 12-2603) [2] says you can't file a medical malpractice lawsuit without a qualified physician first reviewing your case and certifying in writing that the standard of care was breached. No affidavit, no case. Period. We line up the right expert for you.
A board-certified obstetrician or neonatologist has to get on the stand and walk the jury through what should have happened and why it didn't. We work with medical experts who testify regularly in Maricopa County Superior Court. They know how to explain complex deliveries so a jury gets it.
Parents generally get two years from when they found out about the injury. But for claims on behalf of a minor child, Arizona's tolling rules may push that deadline further out. Don't gamble on which rule applies. Call sooner.
Birth injury verdicts tend to be among the largest in medical malpractice for one simple reason: the costs never stop. Arizona law protects your right to recover all of it.
Surgeries, NICU stays, hospital readmissions, corrective procedures. A child with cerebral palsy doesn't just need treatment now, they need it for the next 60 or 70 years.
OT, PT, speech therapy, special education programs, behavioral support, in-home nursing. Wheelchairs, walkers, adaptive technology, home modifications so your child can actually live in your house. A life care planner maps out every single future expense so the jury sees the full financial picture.
Courts recognize that children experience real pain. The physical discomfort, the frustration when their body won't cooperate, the activities they watch other kids enjoy but can't participate in. That has a value.
Arizona lets parents recover for what they go through too. Watching your child struggle every day with something that didn't have to happen, that breaks people. And it deserves compensation.
If your child's injury will limit what they can do as an adult, their lost future income is part of the claim. Forensic economists calculate the gap between what your child could have earned in a healthy life versus what they'll likely earn now.
The Arizona Constitution (Article 2, Section 31) [3] flat-out bans damage caps for personal injury. The legislature can't put a ceiling on it. What the jury says your child's injury is worth, that's the number.
For kids who need care for the rest of their lives, we often set up structured settlements. Regular payments stretched over decades instead of one lump sum. It keeps the money safe and makes sure funds are there when your child needs them at age 20, 30, 40, and beyond.
Birth injury cases sit at the intersection of medicine and law, and you need a team that's comfortable in both worlds. Reading fetal monitoring strips, working with neonatal experts, going toe-to-toe with hospital defense attorneys who have massive budgets, that's the job.
We bring over 250 years of combined legal experience to the table and have recovered more than $250 million for injury clients. Every cost is on us. Expert witness fees, medical record acquisition and analysis, court filings, trial prep. You don't pay a dime out of pocket.
Our Phoenix office sits at 2700 N Central Ave, Suite 320. We answer the phone 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. With birth injury cases, timing matters, fetal monitoring strips and nursing notes need to be preserved before anyone has a chance to alter or lose them.
Call (602) 905-7766 whenever you're ready.
Our attorneys have handled personal injury cases across Arizona and California. We know how Phoenix insurance companies operate, and we know how to push back.
That number reflects real results for real families — medical bills paid, lost wages recovered, and futures protected.
You pay nothing upfront. Our fee comes out of your settlement or verdict. If we do not win your case, you owe us nothing.
Accidents do not follow business hours. Neither do we. Call (602) 905-7766 any time — nights, weekends, and holidays.
Our Phoenix team works out of 2700 N Central Ave, Suite 320. We know the roads, the courts, and the insurance adjusters you are up against.
“After a crash, you need a team that answers the phone, explains your options, and fights for every dollar you are owed. That is what we do at The Simon Law Group.”
Over 250 years of combined attorney experience
Phoenix office at 2700 N Central Ave, Suite 320 |
Licensed in Arizona and California
Yes. If medical negligence during pregnancy, labor, or delivery caused your child's injury, you have a malpractice claim. You must show the provider fell below the accepted standard of care and that the breach directly caused harm.
Parents generally have two years. But claims filed on behalf of a minor child may have different deadlines under Arizona's tolling rules. Don't try to calculate this on your own. Call an attorney as soon as you suspect something went wrong.
Yes. Cerebral palsy caused by oxygen deprivation during labor or delivery is one of the most common birth injury malpractice claims. Expert review of fetal monitoring strips is the key piece of evidence in these cases.
Neonatal cooling (therapeutic hypothermia) is used to reduce brain damage after oxygen deprivation. If your baby received cooling therapy, it may indicate the medical team recognized a hypoxic event occurred during delivery. It's a significant fact in building your case.
Often both. The doctor, hospital, nurses, and other providers may all share liability depending on who made errors. Arizona's vicarious liability rules mean the hospital is often responsible for its employees' mistakes.
No. The Arizona Constitution prohibits caps on personal injury damages. Birth injury cases involving lifetime care needs can result in substantial compensation with no ceiling.
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